Does anyone know anything more about this UK [?] company?
They have an impressive selection of Eastern European titles coming out in July. Included are Milos Forman's first shorts, Maak's LOVE [Hungary], Passer's INTIMATE LIGHTING [Czech], Kawalericz's MOTHER JOAN [Poland], etc.. Sendit & Benson's have them listed but the low price implies a Facet's-like product. Anyone manage to find out more? DVD Talk have no pre-order information.

I emailed Secondrun to ask if the subs will be removable [I hate Facets fixed subs & poor prints]. The reply was "yes." All we can do now is wait for the reviews or even buy a title to test the quality of the transfers. I'll say it again: for fans of Eastern Euro cinema this is good news.

I have a TV-taped copy of THE EAR. This is a gem of a film. It could be described as a communist WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINA WOOLF. A heady blend of marital excess and fearful politics. It is like a play - the action set in the couple's house - with flashbacks to a party earlier on in the night adding a filmic sense. If you love Czech films and you haven't seen this film then do not hesitate; get it. The acting is superb. (P.s. it was [obviously] banned upon its completion, in the wake of the 1968 takeover.)

The UK is coming on good and in my opinion slowly becoming the leaders in DVD production i.e. choice of films, presentation and attention to detail from top to bottom
Masters Of Cinema, British Film Institute, Artificial Eye (getting much better now)â€¦
Let's hope SecondRun will be joining this bevy of great companies.

I've a good feeling that we will be seeing both Jaromil Jires â€˜The Joke' and Dusan Hanaks â€˜Pictures of the Old World' in the not to distant futureâ€¦

One thing that still concerns me about SecondRun is their pricing structure, with all of their titles at present appearing to have a RRP of Â£12.99/$22.59, which is extremely cheap for a UK producer in this sector of the DVD market. Still, lower-tier Criterions get by on the same money, so perhaps I'm just being an alarmist for the sake of. Roll on the 8th of August!

Last edited by Cinéslob on Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

If these prices are correct then this company will get good business from Australians (like me). The pound is set higher than our dollar and this makes all UK purchases more expensive for us than the greenback or the euro. Maybe Secondrun wants to encourage overseas business. If this is true then their discs will be region 0.

I'd be interested to see if they produce similar titles to Facets. If that ad blurb of theirs is true then we can look forward to better transfers of DAISIES & BLACK PETER, etc.

Just saw their first disc - IN THE LAND OF THE DEAF. Nice anamorphic disc, director interview, brilliant subs (not easy for this film, but deftly done here), an 8-page booklet with Rosenbaum essay -- and it's a *great* docu.

What great news. I hope their attention leans towards Klos and Kadar's Adrift at some point (probably my favorite Czech new wave film, not that I've seen most or many) as I'm *done* watching this awful bootleg.

Pre-ordered Love and Mother Joan of the Angels. Really looking forward to both. Their covers look like 70s era family drama paperbacks you come across by the dozens in used book stores. I've always liked those.

I emailed Secondrun to tell them we are watching and I got this reply from Mehelli Modi:

The purpose of Second Run DVD is simply to make available films which I
believe are important, which I have seen over my lifetime and care about,
and which I know will be appreciated again if given the chance to breathe.
By their very nature these are films well below the mass-market sales
criteria of the Major and even the larger Independent DVD labels. But they
are each significant --- narratively, technically, contextually and/or for
many other reasons. As a longtime user and collector and researcher of DVDs over the Internet, I also believe that there are very many people like me, with the same interest in cinema, spread all around the world --- which, of course, you are very well aware of too.

We are trying to present these films in the best possible way we can. The
filmmakers themselves (where alive) are often involved to the fullest extent practicable ---- supervising the upgrading, doing introductions to their films, approving our new subtitles; in fact it is their film and I want them to see the release as theirs just as much as ours. In a few years time, it's possible that even the negatives/prints of some of these films may no longer exist. In some cases, there are bound to be films which we will never be able to upgrade to the same quality as others ---- but, if they are important and we feel that we have done the best we can, we would still want to release them and will always put a suitable note on our website, the packaging and the disc itself.

I know it will all start small. But I hope that over time we can create and
reach a community who will look to us for releasing such films. We are also pricing them as reasonably as possible to encourage people to have and to see them.

Yes, both INTIMATE LIGHTING and DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY will be released on 30th January. Full specs and more details on the films will be published on our Website tonight.

Best wishes,
Second Run DVD

...and, what do you know? Over night, the sight had indeed updated, with full specs on the January discs, plus official announcements of the coming-soon titles. No specs yet, but all are coming March or April of 2006.

Great to see that there will be interviews with Ivan Passer on the INTIMATE LIGHTING disc, and Jim McBride on HOLZMAN. Also really excited about BLISSFULLY YOURS - finally got the chance to catch TROPICAL MALADY and would buy sight unseen anything from this wonderful director.